Social Media for Agents

At a recent seminar for real estate agents in Ogden, UT I said the name of a local agent and asked how many had heard of this person. Most of the hands went up. I asked how they knew him and the answer was “He has a lot of business”.

The punch line was that they didn’t know how the agent was getting all the clients. The answer was easy. Social Media.

I had done a quick internet search the morning of the class and found that this agent is active on numerous blogging websites and using twitter and facebook to grow their business.

By a show of hands, most agents in the room said they were using Facebook, but “didn’t know” how to use it for business. The truth is that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc aren’t sources of business. They are merely tools.

The tools that are available are more than enough for an agent to have more business than they know what to do with it. Its about implementing it the right way.

Here are some tips to dominating your social media marketing.

First of all, too much is too much. What this means is that don’t try to be on every social media website known. You won’t create a large enough of a following this way, and you aren’t going to attract any interest if you are a minor player on a bunch of portals.

Be in the top 2. If you aren’t number 1 or 2 in your “niche” then put a plan to get there or go find another niche. For example, if no one is “tweeting” in your market, become the dominant Twitter user. If there are no YouTube videos for real estate in your market, get a FlipCam and start putting yourself out there.

Pick your media. If you are a video person, become a video blogger, if you like to write, then focus on WordPress, Active Rain, or any other site. If you like to connect with people, Facebook an LinkedIn are your tools.

Convert. So they read your blog. Now what? Are you driving people to read more of your content? Can they go from your content to your home search? Do you trap their information somewhere?

Do it daily. In Las Vegas a couple guys dominated the videos on YouTube. Their videos were uploaded weekly, if not daily, and when you searched Youtube their stuff came up everywhere. It has been six months since they have uploaded anything, and the new wave of video bloggers are pouring in, myself included. I recently wrestled the top spot for a couple searches in YouTube regarding real estate and since I am posting more frequently, I am staying relevant while their post have a more historical look to them. Their Jan 2009 real estate update is not being viewed anymore and for good reason, no one cares.

If you are willing to put content out, make sure people are seeing it, and be patient in building a following, you can totally dominate the social media space you have chosen.